1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sawdust removing apparatus used with various saw machines such as horizontal band saw machine, vertical band saw machine, circular saw machine, etc., and more specifically to a sawdust removing apparatus which can prevent a cleaning instrument such as a sawdust removing brush from being vibrated and worn off unnecessarily, while reducing a torque for rotating the cleaning instrument. Here, "sawdust" implies scraps or swarf of material produced when work is being sawed.
2. Description of the Related Art
When work is being sawed by use of a saw blade such as band saw blade, circular saw blade, etc. attached to a saw machine, sawdust is inevitably produced and adhered to the saw blade. Therefore, the saw machine is generally provided with a rotary cleaning instrument for cleaning the tooth portion of the saw blade, as disclosed in PCT International Publication No. WO93/08948. This conventional art document discloses a sawdust removing device as follows: a cleaning instrument support member for rotatably supporting a cleaning instrument is always urged toward the saw blade by an elastic force of a spring to bring the cleaning instrument into contact with a stopper member fixed at a predetermined distance away from the tooth portion of the saw blade, so that the amount of overlap of the cleaning instrument with the saw blade can be kept always at a constant value. In the conventional art sawdust removing device, since the overlap of the cleaning instrument with the saw blade can be maintained at a constant value, it is possible to remove sawdust from the saw blade under excellent condition.
In the conventional art sawdust removing device, however, since the cleaning instrument is always kept urged toward the stopper member by the spring and is not fixed, there exists a problem in that the cleaning instrument is apt to be inevitably vibrated in accord with the saw blade vibration, and further the cleaning instrument is worn off considerably. Further, the cutting precision deteriorates in particular when the cleaning instrument vibration frequency is resonant to the saw blade vibration frequency. In addition, since the cleaning instrument is always kept urged toward the stopper member, there exists another problem in that a relatively large rotational power is required for rotating the cleaning instrument.